Hot games to expect in 2014

2014 will be an interesting year in gaming. A lot of good Indie titles but also some AAA titles made it high on my list of things most desired. Please check out my personal list of hot games in 2014 – I’m guaranteeing yousome titles you will most likely not even have heard of before!

Paradise Lost

“Paradise Lost” – a game capable of keeping up with Metroid and Alien by combining the best of two worlds!

After watching the trailer of this great looking indie-game i was immediately hooked: “Paradise Lost” looks and plays like a retro stylized Metroid game, but with are nice twist: YOU are the alien, a plant-like entity that is held captive by scientists who perform gruesome experiments to gain any advantage possible during the cold-war era.

Your goal is simple: try to use all means possible to evade and dispose of your captors. The game switches between stealth, evolution mechanics and sometimes gruesome violence to tell a really captivating story with twists and turns.

Wildstar Online

With new game mechanics, skill-based PVP and a ton of humor, Wildstar has a potential to even make people pay monthly fees again.

While there are many “World of Warcraft” wannabe titles out there, Wildstar has big potential to be a viable replacement. This doesn’t come unexpectedly, as the developers of Carbine Studios mostly consist of Ex-Blizzard employees. The game just oozes with charm, featuring a fresh-looking “Ratchet and Clank” like comic style. Add lots of humor and an interesting skill-based fight mechanic and you get quite the fresh experience. The developers also go out of their way with well-made trailers, boasting with quite a huge feature list that doesn’t have to avoid comparison with the bigger Blizzard genre brother.

With the ongoing F2P mentality it may sound counter-intuitive that this game will re-introduce “monthly fees”. But it might also be a selling point that makes the title stand out a lot – not only because of its originality, but also due to the fact that you can also “play” for your monthly fee by getting the things other (paying) customers want. And who knows? Maybe after all this time people feel like actually feel like paying for a game they enjoy again.

Crawl

Dungeon Crawl looks deceptively “normal” until you’ve seen it in action!

Another “pixel” game you might say, moaning in disgust! But wait, “Crawl” is waaay different: this dungeon crawler features yet-unmatched 3 VS 1 gameplay mechanics where one player controls the hero while the others take possession of monsters and traps. If one player manages to kill the hero, he will take possession of his body and continue with the quest until the final boss is defeated.

What deceptively looks like another “Gauntlet / Zelda” clone could turn out to be a game that offers you hours of fun with friends with very minimalistic hardware requirements. It’s the interesting mechanical twist that will keep Crawl players on their toes right until he very end. The pixel’y look is spot-on and well-animated, making the game feel retro and modern at the same time. Randomly generated dungeons will ensure that every match will be different from the last.

On a side note: this is one of the best game-trailers i’ve seen in a while. Not only is edited and voiced on a very high professional level, but it also manages to clearly explain the mechanics within seconds. Make sure to watch this even if you don’t care about the game.

Mirror’s Edge 2

Mirror’s Edge has always been a game with a small but dedicated fanbase. Lets hope that the sequel will live up to the expectations.

Recently EA has built up quite the reputation to screw up game releases and run franchises into the ground. That said i still was very happy to hear that Mirror’s Edge (despite not being a huge financial success) is getting a long-anticipated sequel.

Developed by DICE, this game was so great in its mechanics back in the days, but also held back by the technical limitations of the PS3. While there are not many new features known to date, most fans quite sure were glad to hear that Mirrors Edge 2 will finally feature open world mechanics, something that a free-running game will most likely profit a great deal of. The clean grafical style from the first part will be taken over, as there is not much to improve on that style anyways.

Provided that quality and storyline aren’t suffering from the increased freedom in movement we can soon again hope to slip into Faith’s shoes and keep running.

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GameBytes – User recommendations

Not much is known about the sequel to “Ori and the Blind Forest” yet, but that doesn’t rally matter. Given the already high quality of the first part the trailer makes it clear that the sequel will even try and top that.

One can safely assume that the 2nd installment of Ori will not be doing things mind-blowingly different, but most-assuredly pushing the bar once more in terms of 2D/3D animation quality, sound design and overall presentation. It’s as “high-quality” indie as it can get.

No idea what this is all about about? Just watch the trailer and pay attention to the little details in it:

If you even remotely care about platformers, give this one a look – oh and please play the first one in case you STILL haven’t done that yet. 🙂

Things that might also be interesting to you:

Check, check and Check? Then “Dead Cells” might be interesting to you. The game oozes originality and polish already in its early stage, the combat looks satisfying as heck and versatile on top. However the long-term motivation needs to be proven, as this has always been a major problem with the roguelike genre.

With that said, this game might come out with its own flaws, but so far it is brimming with positive steam reviews, despite having started in Early Access just a few days ago. I’ll make sure to keep it very close on my radar.